Ok, so this is NOT a comprehensive comparison. But it may nevertheless be interesting to some.
I was listening to all my CDs via 2 ganged Sony ES changers (CDP-M555ES) and I was pretty happy with the sound. The convenience of selecting any of up to 800 discs outweighed the supposedly better sound of my Mac MVP-851 DVD/CD player, so I hardly used it and eventually sold it since I owned no DVD-A discs anyway.
A audiophile colleague visiting on a business trip spent some time listening to my system and encouraged me to consider getting a high-performance DAC to feed from the 555s. I thought that might be the way to have both convenience and performance. So I bit, and started looking for a DAC. Well, you know how things go I ended up WAY over my original budget and ended up with an Esoteric P70/D70 combo, which had glowing reviews as a state-of-the-art CD playing system.
I also decided to improve the CD selection interface by adding an Escient E-40 changer manager and a 3rd M555. Now I had a great video interface to catalog, find and select my CDs and a capacity of 1200 CDs. I ran changer optical to the Escient and from there via S/PDIF into the D70 DAC. I was also using a 4th M555 as a staging unit for newly purchased CDs. This unit was routed directly via its analog output to my Mac preamp, with the Toslink output sent to the DAC.
After getting this all set up, I finally sat down to listen to all these options and make some comparisons of sound quality. What I heard (or didnt ) really surprised me.
First, I matched all the levels from the different CD playing options using a pink noise disc using headphones (which I used for all comparisons). I find that headphones really let me concentrate on the music in its little nuances better than using my main speakers.
Soooo, heres what I found
1) M555 analog to PA vs M555 optical to DAC to PA
Indistinguishable from each other. Maybe the M555 transport was the limiting factor? Or the Toslink was canceling any improvement from the D07 DAC vs the Sony built-in DAC?
2) M555 optical to Escient S/PDIF to DAC to PA vs M555 analog to PA
Indistinguishable from each other. At least the Escient conversion of the optical input from the M555 to S/PDIF into the DAC didnt affect the sound quality.
3) P70 transport via dual AES/EBU and clock sync to D70 DAC (upsampling at 176kHz plus word sync) to PA vs M555 analog to PA
Esoteric better (music overtones, microdynamics and bass fullness), but I had to listen REAL hard to find this very small improvement. Over the loudspeakers, this subtlety was lost.
In a nutshell, I was pretty disappointed. I fully expected the Esoteric combo to wipe the floor as many here often state about one piece of equipment or the other. So what do I do now? Sell the Esoteric and use the cash for other stuff? Get new ears? Maybe all the trash talk about Sony changer capabilities is just that .talk.
Ok, going back to sleep now.
Thanks for listening.
I was listening to all my CDs via 2 ganged Sony ES changers (CDP-M555ES) and I was pretty happy with the sound. The convenience of selecting any of up to 800 discs outweighed the supposedly better sound of my Mac MVP-851 DVD/CD player, so I hardly used it and eventually sold it since I owned no DVD-A discs anyway.
A audiophile colleague visiting on a business trip spent some time listening to my system and encouraged me to consider getting a high-performance DAC to feed from the 555s. I thought that might be the way to have both convenience and performance. So I bit, and started looking for a DAC. Well, you know how things go I ended up WAY over my original budget and ended up with an Esoteric P70/D70 combo, which had glowing reviews as a state-of-the-art CD playing system.
I also decided to improve the CD selection interface by adding an Escient E-40 changer manager and a 3rd M555. Now I had a great video interface to catalog, find and select my CDs and a capacity of 1200 CDs. I ran changer optical to the Escient and from there via S/PDIF into the D70 DAC. I was also using a 4th M555 as a staging unit for newly purchased CDs. This unit was routed directly via its analog output to my Mac preamp, with the Toslink output sent to the DAC.
After getting this all set up, I finally sat down to listen to all these options and make some comparisons of sound quality. What I heard (or didnt ) really surprised me.
First, I matched all the levels from the different CD playing options using a pink noise disc using headphones (which I used for all comparisons). I find that headphones really let me concentrate on the music in its little nuances better than using my main speakers.
Soooo, heres what I found
1) M555 analog to PA vs M555 optical to DAC to PA
Indistinguishable from each other. Maybe the M555 transport was the limiting factor? Or the Toslink was canceling any improvement from the D07 DAC vs the Sony built-in DAC?
2) M555 optical to Escient S/PDIF to DAC to PA vs M555 analog to PA
Indistinguishable from each other. At least the Escient conversion of the optical input from the M555 to S/PDIF into the DAC didnt affect the sound quality.
3) P70 transport via dual AES/EBU and clock sync to D70 DAC (upsampling at 176kHz plus word sync) to PA vs M555 analog to PA
Esoteric better (music overtones, microdynamics and bass fullness), but I had to listen REAL hard to find this very small improvement. Over the loudspeakers, this subtlety was lost.
In a nutshell, I was pretty disappointed. I fully expected the Esoteric combo to wipe the floor as many here often state about one piece of equipment or the other. So what do I do now? Sell the Esoteric and use the cash for other stuff? Get new ears? Maybe all the trash talk about Sony changer capabilities is just that .talk.
Ok, going back to sleep now.
Thanks for listening.